International trade event marks 50-day countdown as organizing bureau announces that all its preparations have progressed well

The fourth China International Import Expo, which marked its 50-day countdown on Sept 16, is expected to increase opportunities for all participants with innovative exhibitions and services.

The 2021 CIIE will be held at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai) from Nov 5-10.

Preparations for the 2021 expo have progressed well with new highlights, according to the CIIE Bureau, the expo's organizer.

The fourth CIIE will include a business exhibition, a country exhibition, the Hongqiao International Economic Forum and a number of supporting activities and events.

Most prominent will be the business exhibition, which will feature a total of six areas: food and agricultural products, automobiles, intelligent industry and information technology, consumer goods, medical equipment and healthcare products, and trade in services.

By now, the total booked area of the business exhibition has surpassed 360,000 square meters, the organizer said.

The quality of the exhibition has further improved, and number of enterprises and countries and regions exceed that of the 2020 edition, said Zhou Lingyan, deputy general manager of the Division of Exhibition at the CIIE Bureau.

According to Zhou, a large number of Fortune 500 companies and industrial pacesetters will participate in this year's expo, with more than 80 percent of them repeat exhibitors.

As warm-up events for the fourth CIIE, two matchmaking meetings for service trade and automobile industries were held at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai) on Sept 16. Many industry-leading enterprises participated in the meetings and had exchanges with potential business partners.

The organizer has already held a series of supply and demand matchmaking meetings through a combination of online and offline events, covering its six business exhibition areas. More than 200 exhibitors and nearly 500 buyers have participated.

Officials from customs and other departments have also been invited to some meetings for policy interpretation.

In addition, a total of 17 investment roadshows have been held with nearly 2,600 buyers involved.

The fourth CIIE will set up 13 subsections, including innovation incubation, digital industry, energy low-carbon and environmental protection technology, integrated circuit, public health and epidemic prevention, rehabilitation and elderly care, biomedicine, smart travel, agricultural products, dairy products, beauty and daily chemical products, green smart home appliances as well as sports goods and events.

Highly welcomed by exhibitors, these subsections will display the latest products, technologies and services, the organizer said.

To introduce more overseas high-quality resources into the domestic market and further promote the innovation and upgrading of domestic industries, the expo will set up an innovation incubation section in the equipment, automobile and medical exhibition zones.

The incubation subsection will serve as a test ground and incubator for high-quality innovative small and micro enterprises, the organizer said.

According to the organizer, nearly 100 exhibitors will gather in the innovation incubation zone, with exhibits covering fields such as artificial intelligence, health technology and autonomous driving.

The forum and other activities held during the expo will also bring benefits to incubated enterprises, such as experience sharing, investment promotion, market access and industrial park settlement.

As before, a large number of innovative products, technologies and services will make their worldwide or national debuts at the expo.

This year, the number of countries and regions that exhibitors come from has exceeded that of last year. The number of overseas SME exhibitors has increased by about 30 percent. Exhibition organizations from Japan, Denmark, Poland and New Zealand have expanded their exhibition areas this year to organize more SMEs to display their countries' manufacturing characteristics and capability. The Central and Eastern Europe subsection will be set up at the food exhibition area covering 1,500 sq m with more than 60 enterprises.

The country exhibition of the fourth CIIE will be held online. Through the adoption of advanced technology, the organizer of the CIIE has worked out effective solutions for countries failing to participate in the event due to the widespread pandemic.

The organizer will build a virtual exhibition hall via its official website using three-dimensional modeling, virtual reality and other technologies.

At the online hall, countries will be able to show their development achievements, advantageous industries, cultural tourism, representative enterprises and other characteristics in various forms such as pictures, videos and 3D models, said Cui Ying, head of division of exhibitors recruitment at the CIIE Bureau.

An online exhibition allows countries to continue to have the opportunities brought by the CIIE. This move not only widens audiences, but also further improves the influence of country exhibition at the CIIE, Cui said.

The organizer will also arrange on-site activities to increase interaction with visitors. An experience zone will be set up allowing visitors to browse online country exhibitions using VR and other equipment.

The wide participation at country exhibition represents the opening-up and cooperation advanced by the CIIE as well as China's responsibility to build an open economy and a community of shared future for mankind, the organizer said.